Reveling in Taroudant

We came for Morocco’s best preserved city wall and wished we had stayed longer for the food. Yes, Taroudant regularly makes it into lists of the world’s top walled cities (and you know I love those.) It’s stunning pisé walls studded with crenelated towers and gates stretch for eight kilometers. We explored them in one of the local horse-drawn caleches and wound our way through the fortified kasbah district on foot thinking that the fabulous fortifications would be the highlight of our visit to the city. But that was before we found Riad Maryam.

Riad Maryam Taroudant: The Best Food in Morocco, If Not on the Planet

I’m sure Riad Maryam will go down as one of our favorite meals ever. The cook Latifah, who seriously deserves the title Queen Latifah, prepared a “three course” meal, which turned out to be a ridiculously over-indulgent feast. After the delicious Ramadan harira soup, the second “course” ended up having ten different mouth-watering Moroccan salad dishes, each one of which could have served as a complete meal. I was nearly reduced to tears as I sadly realized my human stomach could never contain all the food. I was forced to conserve space for our main courses, b’stilla au poulet (pie filled with chicken and almonds topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon) and a tajine with beef and prunes. Yum. Desert was a pastry of layered pancakes filled with nuts. I’m tearing up as I write this. Latifah from Riad Maryam is so good, she has been featured on Moroccan television. Ah, I once had a meal in Taroudant…

In 2007, Tony and Thomas decided to shake up their routine by traveling the globe and blogging about their adventures. Join us as we explore the world, discover its wonders, and experiment with our own version of contemporary living. More about us here.